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President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out in a Thursday meeting with lawmakers about immigration reform, demanding to know why the US should accept citizens from what he called "shithole" countries. The comments, first reported by The Washington Post, sparked anger among Democrats and Republicans and revived questions about Trump's tendency to make racially charged remarks. Trump sat down with senators and congressmen at the White House to discuss a proposed bipartisan deal that would limit immigrants from bringing family members into the country, and restrict the green card visa lottery in exchange for shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation. "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to people briefed...

The European Union on Thursday called on Sudan to allow protests that are being held against rising food prices, saying it was closely monitoring the demonstrations and detention of political leaders. Sporadic protests have erupted in parts of Sudan since last week as angry students and citizens took to the streets against soaring bread prices on the back of a jump in the cost of flour. Anti-riot police have swiftly broken up the demonstrations using tear gas against protesters, many of them university students. A student was killed on Sunday during a protest in war-torn Darfur. On Thursday, the EU said it was closely monitoring the protests. "We consider it crucial that people are permitted to exercise their right to...

A video showing the dean of a prominent Sudanese women's university beating female students protesting against high food prices has gone viral, sparking outrage on social media Thursday. The footage showed Qassim Badri, dean of Khartoum-based Ahfad University for Women, walking into a crowd of female students on campus and slapping one and beating another repeatedly. More students then surrounded him, with one even hitting him as others shouted slogans with their hands raised, the video showed. The incident occurred on Wednesday when the students were demonstrating against high prices of food items sold at a cafeteria on campus. The video went viral after students and activists uploaded it on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, sparking an outburst...

The Sudanese pound hit an all-time low against the dollar on the black market Tuesday, brokers said, fuelling concerns of soaring inflation as importers rushed to buy the US currency. On Tuesday, the pound reaching 30 to a dollar on the black market, its lowest level ever. The official rate is 18 pounds to a dollar. An acute shortage of dollars has weakened the Sudanese pound steadily, with the currency losing about 60 percent in the past year on the black market. "The pound touched 30 on the black market today as corporates and businessmen rushed to buy dollars to meet their import payments," a broker said on condition of anonymity. Trading on the foreign exchange market has been very...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has renewed a complaint at the United Nations demanding Egypt hand over control of the “Halayeb Triangle” border territory, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Relations between Egypt and Sudan have been soured in recent months by disputes over the ownership of the triangle, and over the broader issue of use of water from the River Nile that passes through their territories. The triangle lies between Egypt and its southern neighbor and the borders have been contested by Sudan since 1958. Cairo says it is Egyptian territory. The Foreign Ministry did not say what action it wanted the United Nations to take, if any. Egypt rejected in 2016 a request from Khartoum to enter negotiations to...

Sudan has shut its eastern border with Eritrea, state media reported Saturday, days after Khartoum declared an emergency in the neighbouring state of Kasala. "The governor of Kasala issued a decree to close all border crossings with Eritrea from the night of January 5," the official SUNA news agency reported. It did not explain why the border was closed but said the decision comes after President Omar al-Bashir declared on December 30 a state of emergency in Kasala and in North Kordofan state for six months. Officials have said that decision was part of a government campaign to collect illegal arms in those two states. A resident of Kasala told AFP that hundreds of Sudanese soldiers, several military vehicles and...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Hundreds of Sudanese students on Monday threw rocks at riot police and were met with tear gas salvoes on the third consecutive days of protests over a doubling in bread prices, witnesses said. They said police formed a cordon to force more than 300 marchers onto the campus of Khartoum University, the largest in Sudan, and continued to fire tear gas at students chanting, “No, no, no to price rises!” A smaller number of protesters gathered in Kosti, Sudan’s biggest Nile river port 350 km (217 miles) south of the capital, but were dispersed by baton-wielding police. Street protests broke out across the sprawling northeastern African country after bread prices doubled following a government announcement late last...

The United Nations on Tuesday called on Israel to scrap a new programme forcing thousands of African migrants out of the country, condemning it as incoherent and unsafe. The programme is targeting an estimated 38,000 people, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan. Israel has offered them $3,500 (2,900 euros) and a plane ticket if they leave by March, warning they may face arrest after the deadline. The plan was widely criticised when first unveiled last year, but the UN refugee agency sounded a fresh alarm after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement last week that the programme had begun. "UNHCR is again appealing to Israel to halt its policy of relocating Eritreans and Sudanese to sub-Saharan Africa", the agency said in...

A student was killed in Sudan on Sunday during protests against soaring bread prices, officials and witnesses said. Protests broke out in areas of war-torn Darfur and Blue Nile states as well as the capital Khartoum with demonstrators burning tyres and blocking roads and police firing tear gas. Bread prices more than doubled this week as flour manufacturers raised prices amid dwindling wheat supplies after the government decided to stop importing grain and allowed private companies to do so. Anti-riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of students and residents who staged rallies in the towns of Geneina and Nyala in Darfur and Damazin in Blue Nile, witnesses said. "In the incidents that occurred in Geneina, one student was killed...

Sudanese security agents on Sunday seized all copies of six newspapers after they criticised the government over soaring bread prices that have almost doubled this week, editors said. Discontent has been simmering over the past few days as bread prices jumped on the back of a sharp rise in the cost of flour after a government decision to shift importing of wheat to private sector companies. Several newspapers have criticised the decision concerning wheat imports, while the country's opposition groups called for nationwide demonstrations against the price rise. On Sunday, members of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) confiscated entire print runs of Al-Tayar, Al-Mustagilla, Al-Karar, Al-Midan, Al-Assayha and Akhbar Al-Watan newspapers. Akhbar al-Watan and Al-Midan are mouthpieces...

Angry Sudanese queued outside bakeries in Khartoum on Friday as bread prices doubled overnight, with bakers blaming a government decision to stop importing wheat. Customers had to wait nearly an hour to buy a loaf, while several bakery operators said price hikes on flour meant they would be forced to stop production entirely. "All bakeries have decided to raise the price of bread after the price of flour was raised yesterday," Mohamed al-Saeed, a member of a bakery owners' union, told AFP. Flour manufacturers had raised the price of a 50 kilo (110 pound) sack of wheat flour from 167 to 450 Sudanese pounds ($65, 54 euros), he said. That sent bread prices soaring across Sudan, threatening to bring bakeries...

Sudan on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Egypt for "consultations" after renewed tension between the two neighbours following last month's visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Khartoum. Ties between Khartoum and Cairo have deteriorated since Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir last year accused Egyptian intelligence services of supporting opposition figures fighting his troops in the country's conflict zones like Darfur. Officials from both countries have engaged in high-level diplomatic initiatives to improve their relations, but Erdogan's visit to Khartoum in December delivered a new blow to Cairo-Khartoum ties. "Sudan has called its ambassador to Cairo, Abdelmahmoud Abdelhalim...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has recalled its ambassador from neighboring Egypt for consultations, the foreign ministry said on Thursday, without giving details on why or how long he would stay. Egypt’s foreign ministry said it is evaluating the situation in order to take “appropriate action”. Relations have been soured by disputes over the ownership of the Halayeb Triangle border area, and over the use of the water from the River Nile that passes through their territories. Sudan has accused Cairo of political meddling and banned imports of Egyptian agricultural products last year.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has extended a unilateral ceasefire with rebels until the end of March, state news agency SUNA reported on Thursday, citing a presidential decree. In October, the United States lifted 20-year-old sanctions tied to progress on progress on counter terrorism cooperation and on resolving internal conflicts. Fighting between the army and rebels in the Kordofan and Blue Nile regions broke out in 2011, when South Sudan declared independence. Conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribes took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-led government. The ceasefire was set to expire at the end of December.

Israel on Wednesday began implementing a plan to force tens of thousands of African migrants out of the country by April, threatening to arrest those who stay. "This plan will get under way today," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting. Under the programme, some 38,000 migrants who entered Israel illegally, mainly Eritreans and Sudanese, will have until the end of March to leave. Each will receive a plane ticket and $3,500 (2,900 euros) to do so. After the deadline, this amount will decrease and those who continue to refuse to go will face arrest. Holot, an open facility in Israel's desert south that can host 1,200 migrants who are allowed to leave to work...

Sudanese Finance Minister Mohammed Osman al-Rikabi said on Tuesday that banks across the world are still wary of working with Khartoum despite the US ending a trade embargo. The United States ditched its 20-year trade embargo against Khartoum in October, citing improvement made by Sudan in its human rights record, but still includes it on a blacklist of "state sponsors of terrorism". "We did not benefit from the lifting of the embargo. World banks are still reticent about doing business with Sudanese banks," Rikabi told reporters. Under the terms of the US embargo Sudanese banks could not receive money transfers from abroad. Rikabi's comments come after parliament on Sunday approved an annual budget, aimed at reducing inflation from 34 percent...

Sudan's president on Saturday announced a state of emergency in two states in the centre and east of the country, the official news agency said. President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree to install the state of emergency in North Kordofan and Kasala for six months, SUNA said, without providing any reason. Kasala is on the country's eastern border with Eritrea. A state of emergency is already in force in seven other conflict-ridden states. These include the five states that make up the region of Darfur, where government forces have been battling rebels since 2003. The state of emergency also applies to the two states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where government forces have been fighting insurgents since 2011. According...

Russia has signed an agreement to build a nuclear power plant in Sudan, Russia's Rosatom nuclear agency announced on Friday, a month after a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir. Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide and war crimes, has been pushing for closer energy and military ties with Russia. The nuclear power plant deal was signed in Khartoum on Thursday by Rusatom Overseas, a branch of Rosatom, and Sudan's electricity ministry, the Russian nuclear company said in a statement.

France on Monday accepted a first group of 19 refugees who were identified in Africa under an overhauled asylum policy that will also see it expel thousands of economic migrants. While it has drawn little public outcry in France, the policy faces stiff opposition from the left and from charities that shelter migrants, 22 of which called in an open letter for France's rights ombudsman Jacques Toubon to intervene. Djamel, a refugee from the Central African Republic, arrived at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport with his wife and four children after spending four years at a camp in Chad, telling AFP: "Now we've no other family. Now you are our family." The new refugees -- also hailing from Sudan --...

Seated in his Khartoum office overlooking the Blue Nile, Sudanese journalist Adil al-Baz no longer fears a crackdown by security agents over his articles since he launched an online newspaper. "We are free to publish what we want on our online newspaper," Baz, a former print newspaper editor, told AFP at the office of Al-Ahdath, the website he launched this year. In a country of increasing media censorship, Baz is among several independent journalists who have left newspaper jobs and launched online papers or websites. About a dozen internet papers have been launched in the past year alone as agents of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) continue to confiscate entire print-runs of newspapers over articles opposed to...